Chevron Earned Net Income of $7.2bn in 4Q 2012

United States oil giant, Chevron Corporation at the weekend reported earnings of $7.2 billion for the fourth quarter 2012, compared with $5.1 billion in the 2011 fourth quarter.

Results in the 2012 period included a gain of $1.4 billion from an upstream asset exchange, with production increases from project ramp-ups in Nigeria and Thailand and higher cost recovery volumes in Bangladesh partially offset by the continued shut-in of the Frade Field in Brazil.

The company’s full-year 2012 earnings were $26.2 billion, down 3 percent from $26.9 billion recorded in 2011.

Sales and other operating revenues in the fourth quarter 2012 were $56 billion, down from $58 billion in the year-ago period, mainly due to lower crude oil volumes.

The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the company, Mr. John Watson, said his company had delivered another very strong year in 2012.

“Our upstream portfolio continues to produce excellent results. We’ve now led the industry in earnings per barrel for over three years. Our downstream businesses also delivered highly competitive earnings per barrel. Strong cash flows allowed us to invest aggressively in our major capital projects and to acquire several important, new resource opportunities. We also raised the dividend on our common shares for the 25th consecutive year and continued our share repurchase program, both of which demonstrate our commitment to providing near-term, top-tier returns to our shareholders,” he said.

Watson continued, “We made significant progress on our Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG projects in Australia in the past year. At the same time, we announced six additional natural gas discoveries offshore Australia, and completed an asset exchange that increased our interests in Carnarvon Basin fields. These results support future expansion opportunities for these two projects.”

“We also expanded our global exploration resource acreage in 2012,” Watson noted, “including entries into five new countries, the addition of significant new acreage in the United States, and the recently announced acquisition of a 50 percent operated interest in a western Canada LNG project.”

Watson commented that the company added approximately 1.07 billion barrels of net oil-equivalent proved reserves in 2012.

Worldwide net oil-equivalent production was 2.67 million barrels per day in the fourth quarter 2012, up from 2.64 million barrels per day in the 2011 fourth quarter.

Production increases from project ramp-ups in Nigeria, the United States and Thailand, higher cost recovery volumes in Bangladesh and new volumes from the recently-acquired Delaware Basin properties were partially offset by normal field declines and the continued shut-in of the Frade Field in Brazil

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